Character Line Moodboards

Emma and I decided quite early on that we want to go down the route of creating textures for the characters and backgrounds using traditional medias such as paint or brusho, but we would like to create the outlines and animation of the mouths digitally. We wanted to use this method because we have recently seen examples of other animations which have composisted in traditional backgrounds, and we feel it works really well. I like the detail textures which can be achieved with natural medias, I find it really satisfying and refreshing to look at.

Above is some of the concept work from Cartoon Saloon's animations, "Song of the Sea" and "Secret of Kells" I love the combining of traditional and digital media, especially as somebody who usually prefers using traditional media. I'm excited to see what we will achieve when we bring these two together. 

Character Line Research

Above is a character line mood board created by Emma which she then sent to me. We decided that it would be a good idea to both create a separate mood board, focusing on the use of line work on characters, and then show each other. This was already quite promising because we knew we had been interested and influenced by similar animations. 

After comparing both of our mood boards, it seemed very clear that we have both taken influence from very similar areas, especially after our conversations. 

The use of line work for our characters is so important because the lines are the only part that are going to be digital, so they need to be distinctive in order to identify what animals they are supposed to be. We both like the idea of the line work being quite fluid and not too over complicated, because we don't want to derive all of the attention away from the textures. Also, most of the characters we have found ourselves researching, seem to have relatively simple outlines which in some ways is more effective than them being overly complex. 

When creating sketches towards the final character designs, I will be thinking about how I can create line work which is simple, but distinctive and stylised. 

Further sketches

Before carrying out further research I produced some more drawings, because I'm not hugely experienced with drawing animals, so I wanted to sketching some of them in more than one style. This has actually been really useful, because I now feel more confident, so when it comes to producing the final character, I will be able to do it at a faster pace.  

Schedule and Roles

In order to know what to focus on at what time, and how long we have, Emma and I have produced a week by week schedule to stick to, so that we get everything completed on time. Also, it helps us both as part of our work process to visually see what needs doing!

We have decided on specific roles that we will both focus on through out this module:

Emma:

• Script, Audio, Environmental Design, Animation and post-production

Myself:

• Concept Design, Storyboarding, Environmental Design, Character design, Animation. 

We have deiced to split the animation equally, however I will be focusing mostly on the pre-production because my interests lie more in the area of concept and character design. Emma is more interested in the main part of production which is the animating and the post-production side. We think this will work really well, because my strengths lie more in the concept side of production. We have split the animation itself equally because we both want to have an input to this, but also so the work load is equal!

Research

One of the reasons we stuck with the case of the wolf and the boar, was because these are the two cases for which we can find the most legitimate information. As part of the research process, Emma recommended watching a section from Country Life which she had seen recently, whilst watching this I decided to see if I could find something similar on the boar, which I did.

How Wolves Change Rivers

http://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/rewilding/reintroductions/wolf

This video and website provided a lot of information on what we wanted to convey. They show that the reintroduction of wolves will do a lot of good for the echo system for a number of reasons:

• Wolves hunt some of the deer, which results in plant life being improved
• improved plant life leads to healthier rivers
• healthier rivers lead to beavers building dams 
• Dams provide environments for otter and fish. 
• Wolves tend to avoid humans, so if left alone they shouldn't be a danger. 

Reintroduction of Boar In the UK

http://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/rewilding/reintroductions/wild-boar

After carrying out research on the issue of the reintroduction of the boar, it does appear again, that although there are downsides, such as the digging up of farm land, and danger to dogs and potentially humans, if these animals are restricted to specific woodland areas it could mean:

• Increased biodiversity, due to rooting and wallowing. 
• They destroy bracken which allows space for other plants and trees to grow. 
• Robins follow the boar
• The have become a tourist attraction in the UK

Pinning down our idea.

After discussions with out tutors, Emma and I realised that our idea was a bit all over the place, and that we needed to pin down one of two particular cases in order for our documentary to have a legitimate meaning and purpose. We knew we wanted our documentary to be centred around the point of view of the animals involved, as well as possibly a fisherman or farmer, but there was juts too much to cram into two minuets!

Before having this conversation with the tutors, I had produced some initial drawing ideas for what the animals could potentially look like. After figuring out which cases to stick to, it turned out that these two charters would not be included. However this wasn't a waste of time, because it has helped the both of us to figure out the sort of style we would like to go for with our animation.

Finalised Idea

We decided to narrow it down to focusing on the boar and the wolf, who would be interviewed by a robin. We found quite a lot of inspiration in watching "Creature Comforts" because the animals are given human characteristics and talk in exactly the same way.

What will happen?

Through out these two minuets, it will alternate between the the Robin interviewing the Boar and the Wolf in their natural habitats. We decided that a Robin would be a good idea because it would show a contrast to the size and demeanor of the other two characters. Also, Robins often migrate to where a boar's natural habitat, so it made sense to incorporate a small animal which had relevance to the context.

We plan to record other fellow students speaking, which will come from a script. We will then animate to the audio, so animating a talking sequence is something we will need to learn!

What is our message? 

The message coming from this documentary will be that, humans need to stop playing God, and learn to coincide with keystone species, because if left alone, these key stone species will do more good than bad for the echo system. 

Teaming up!

For this brief, Emma and I have decided to work together because we have quite similar ideas and we both love the idea of using this module to mix traditional and digital animation together.  We decided quite quickly that we wanted to choose the topic of "Environment" it is an issue which stems off into lots of other potential areas.

Instead of addressing one of the more obvious issues such as global warming, we wanted to focus our documentary on an issue which isn't talked about so often. Emma and I got to talking about the issue of the inability humans have to coincide with certain species, because they are an inconvenience to us. We highlighted a number of cases which have become apparent recently:

• Fisherman in Ireland slaughtering seals due to the fact the seals are eating the fish, which is having an effect upon fish sales. 
• The reintroduction of the boar into Europe, which is resulting in the destruction of farm land. 
• The reintroduction of the wolf, which could be seen as dangerous to other wildlife and humans.